Greens leader Richard Di Natale has unveiled a plan to build a government-funded energy retailer, that would only invest in renewables and would be prohibited from accruing profit.

Under the new energy blueprint, the state-owned electricity retailer would be mandated to deliver energy at the lowest cost possible and cultivate competition, as the Greeens look to crackdown on gouging market players pursuing profit-only agendas. The plan is part of Di Natale’s broader, interventionist bid to halt the market dominance of oligopolies in the essential services arena, which are thought to be putting upward pressure on prices.

But Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly says the plan won’t work.

“This is just typical green nutcase stuff,” says Craig Kelly.

“They have no idea of the economics of it. Where is the energy going to come from when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?”

“That’s the whole problem we have with these so-called ‘renewables.’ It’s the intermittent generation. You’ve got to be able to supply electricity into the grid to meet the demand consistently, every second of the day.”

“You can’t do that with wind turbines that stop and start when the wind blows or solar panels that produce nothing at night.”